NOVATOWNHALL

Global warming is forefront as an issue.  So is oil, alternative energy and fat people.  I still have the brick mark on my forehead where this one hit me.  It is just so easy to understand and resolve.

We start out with “We The People” to the understanding that our forefathers were in actuallity talking about “we the politicians”.  This is an undeniable truth.  If it were otherwise then we the people would be able to force our elected officials into doing what WE require-not what they deem is best.  If you doubt this understanding then I believe that you need to take this to the Supreme Court for an irreputible vauge decision.  Because we the politicians know what is best for us and they do make the rules, it is time for you slackers to get in lockstep and stop your whinning.  I have the solution that will work and it comes from my liberal ways and understanding of things.

First, everyone gets a house.  One floor of at least 2000 sq.ft (for a family of four) is considered the subsistance floor.  There will be exercycles mounted with alternator units to run the household.  100 sq ft will be dedicated to the storage batteries with a reserve of 5 hours (we don’t want you getting lazy).  The batteries and exercycles will power YOUR unit (unless there is an emergency of which time all energy will go to power the grid).  So now if you want heat above 60 degrees or air conditioning below 85 degrees, get off your fatass and get to work.  It is now on you.  Did I say fatass?  Oh but not for long.  Since you can’t control your eating habits and you want your refrigerator to keep your food chilled, you will HAVE to work for it.  And the pounds will melt away.  The batteries will be made of an ecofriendly substance so that at the end of their lifespan, they may either be buried in the yard (if you have one) or eaten.  And if eaten, the carb levels must be low and the protien levels must be high but without causing GAS!  This is most important!  No gas!

The rest of the floor will be covered with plants.  No pets.  Some of you (especially Asians) will think about eating your pets and that creates pounds and gas.  We can’t abide by that. You may choose what plants you want but don’t be foolish because these plants are what you will subsist on as far as intake.  They will also scrub off your co2 emissions and give you life maintaining oxygen.  We will supply water at a nominal price to bath (water must be used 3 times then poured onto plants), drink and water plants.  You can grow plants according to NORML  but you cannot give/sell those plants to others.  After all, what would happen if we had an emergency and need everyone on the grid, hum?

I know.  Some of you only have single floor homes.  Too bad.  You should have thought of the country’s needs long before you bought, you self-centered individual.

The only thing that can be nuclear is the Alka-Seltzer in your water glass.  Wind is okay and sun is also.  Matter of fact the sun is your new best friend.  It will handle your transportation needs.  Commercial planes will go by the wayside.  They don’t work on solar (but if you invented a way, we will think about bringing them back and giving you unlimited flights-excluding blackout periods of course-for one full year) and we don’t want anymore pollution in the atmosphere.  After all, “if man was meant to fly…”.  Military aircraft will use only ethonal and when the land on aircraft carriers, they will no longer be able to dump fuel to lighten the plane.  We’re sorry if you crash and die but we don’t want the environment polluted and we don’t want to waste good fuel.  And if we lose a plane, well, we don’t like the military anyway.  It gives the rest of the world the impression that we are a hostile people.

Farming will be for the soul purpose of plant growth for fuel-no food stock.  What the fatcats (they are the ONLY ones to remain obese) don’t use in their vehicles, we will sell to support our backrupt country.  Not even the grid will use fuel.  That is why we have citizens.  Professional sports will disappear and professional atheletes will use that energy for the grid.  They will be the only ones compensated for the making of energy-all others will either live or die by it.  Oh, and there will be open borders so that we can support the grids industry (read fatcats vacation homes, personal homes and concubine abodes as well as the lighting for the “general good”) because there will enevitibly be an increase of heartattack related deaths but once we get those whimps out of the way, the grid should stabilize and everyone will be skinny but healthy.

Anything not covered will be figured out later.  “Ask not what your country can do for you..” are the greastest words ever spoken and we mean to have you abide by them.  This has been thoughtout to the end of my nose so it is a proven way to proceed.  We will have a happy, healthy and energy producing country in spite of what you may think or feel.  It is what is necessary.  Get on board and start enjoying life again!

I’m not going to critique the Israel, Jordan, and Europe legs of Obama’s trip, simply because I don’t have the intimate knowledge of those areas that I have of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Once again, I’ll give the Senator credit for his conduct these past few days.  He did his listening without trying to impose his plans on foreign governments or military leaders.  In 2000, I was in a military audience for an Al Gore appearance.  He spent most of his time telling us how he wanted to give us a pay raise, better housing, etc.  A campaign speech, basically.  Senator Obama didn’t do this either.  I didn’t hear him speak, but according to the first-hand accounts I’ve heard, he kept his comments to thanking the military and giving us credit for all the progress that’s been made.

While I have no complaints about his trip, I do have some issues with his conduct leading up to and right after it.

First, why did it take him almost 3 years to visit again?  Why only the second time?  I would think such an outspoken critic of our involvement in Iraq would be doing this more often.  Especially since he claims to support the troops so much.  When was the last time he spoke with General Petraeus?  When was the last time he discussed the progress over here with any military leader at all?  His opposition to what’s left of this war has been strictly for political leverage.  He can say he’s always opposed it, while Senator Clinton and Senator McCain can’t.  Beyond that he doesn’t care.  I doubt he would have made this trip had not Senator McCain called him on his perceived lack of interest.

Second, as I said before, his past comments criticizing the Afghan and Iraqi governments were not constructive.  He is not the State Department.  He is a legislator.  His comments risk souring the relationship we have with these countries, who are already fragile allies in the War on Terror.

Third, I appreciate the Senator’s willingness to slightly back off his “16 months” timeline.  A “residual force” is a step up from a complete withdrawal.  However, I would have gained a lot more respect for the man if he had been big enough to admit he had been wrong about the surge.  I caught the clip on the TV where he admitted to Katie Couric that the surge had worked, and then proceeded to say he still wouldn’t have supported it if he had known then what he knows now.  What?  What did he want?  More of what we had here before the surge?  More chaos?  More sectarian violence?  More terrorism?  More dead Americans?  More dead Iraqis?  Straight up defeat?

I’m looking over his press release now and I have some thoughts I will share.  My comments are in italics. Read the rest of this entry »

Imagine if a year ago, the dimwit in the Whitehouse had listened to Obama and the Democrats and had not conducted the surge? What if Petraeus had not been allowed to conduct his brand of counter-insurgency-warfare? Obama in his own words …

I am not persuaded that Twenty Thousand addition troops in Iraq is gonna solve the sectarian violence there, in fact I think it will do the reverse.

Obama said the above on January 10, 2007. So much for Obama’s vaunted ‘judgement’. Today 15 of 18 of the benchmarks regarding progress in Iraq have been met. When was the last time Congress managed to meet 3 of 18 let alone 15 of 18 benchmarks with respect to anything? Today Iraq is a far safer place; Obama would not be in Iraq shooting hoops with the troops. It would not be ‘nothing but net‘, the guy would be in a bunker expounding on how the situation was all George Bush’s fault and how he (Obama) has better judgment.

Considering how the Obama has spent ~150 days in the U.S. senate, it is easy to say that he has not made any mistakes. That is because he has also not done anything worthy of note either. It appears that Obama was wrong with respect to the surge and what is worse, he is dishonest about it. His campaign has removed all the negative text from its website regarding the surge. How about a confession of his mistakes. It was OK to ask Bush about his mistakes back in 2004. Can the press corps stop fawning long enough to ask, “Why did you get this so wrong?” Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander and the press’s credibility is quickly approaching that of the Democrat led congress.

The following is an artist’s illustration what an Obama trip to Iraq would look like today if Bush had listened to the great Messiah of Chicago and his sycophants in Congress.

Now granted we cannot blame Obama completely for missing the boat on this one. He was not alone, and it appears that the poor dear has just been keeping bad company, again. Take the entire leadership of the Democrat party for instance; Pelosi and Reid are on record:

“House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) stated that she, along with the Majority leader, Harry Reid (D-Nev.), “informed the president that they were opposed to increasing troop levels.” Both Pelosi and Reid expressed their disapproval in a letter to Bush on January 5, 2007″

Then there is Murtha, Biden and the rest of the Democrat Congressional leadership on record trying to torpedo the effort. Politics no longer ends at the waters edge in this country. That extra-national politicking is the essence of incredible pride that goes before the fall.

So now Obama, being mobbed by reporters, safe in a country that was written off by the very party he represents and the press corps that carries its water. Are the American people noticing this comical theater, or is this all a ‘willful suspension of disbelief‘?

I decided that I would not go to Senator Obama’s meet and greet here where I live, in the International Zone.  I wanted to go to bed early, and I had a feeling it would be crowded.  I was right.

One soldier described it to me, “I’ve been to rock concerts that weren’t that pushy.”  He then informed me he actually had to have security help him through the crowd once he was done meeting the Senator.  Another member of my crew told me he waited 3 or 4 hours to meet him, including the hour he got there early.  A third soldier I work with got lucky, running into him in passing and getting a quick photo in.

Senator Obama had his meet and greet yesterday evening (Monday).  According to all accounts I’ve heard, he spoke briefly to a large crowd, but did not appear to have a speech prepared.  His normally polished words were filled of “uh” and “um”.  Poor guy must have been jet-lagged or exhausted or something.  He then proceeded to meet with and pose for pictures with anyone who wanted one.  There was no organization to this part of it, you just had to work your way up if you wanted to talk to him.  Seems he was a decent enough fellow to hang around for quite a while due to the large number of people.  He (or his security team) was also decent enough not to pull a Bill Clinton and disarm all the troops around him in the middle of a war-torn country.

Most evenings, I eat dinner in the same chow hall, then I go outside and have a cigarette and coke in the MWR area, near some outdoor pool tables in a shady gazebo.  Yesterday as soon as I left the smoking area, I noticed the largest motorcade I’ve seen here parked on the road.  I asked around and found out he had just walked into the chow hall I had left 10 minutes prior.  I went back to my room thinking I had missed my chance.   I was informed that after his dinner, he stopped to shoot pool with some Joes in the same spot I sit and smoke every night.  This morning, I was out for my regular PT run, and there went the motorcade right by me again, I’m assuming on his way out since the news says he’s already gone.

Oh well.  Would have been nice to have gotten a picture for the site.

I have to give the Senator credit, he “stayed in his lane,” as the Army expression goes.

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama met Iraq’s prime minister in Baghdad on Monday but did not raise his plan to remove combat troops within 16 months if he wins the election, an Iraqi official said.

-From a National Post report

It sounds like he did as he said he would.  He listened, rather than talked.  I hope his visit with the Iraqi PM was enlightening to him.  I also wish the Senator had been paying us more attention over here prior to this point in time.

Other than my previous objection to Senator Obama’s past comments, I think he did pretty well on this part of the trip.

Here and here are two different accounts.

I don’t have a problem with US Senators meeting with foreign leaders, so long as they are doing so with the approval of the State Department (hear that, Nancy Pelosi?).  Senator Obama’s meeting with President Karzai was good for America overall.  I think it is appropriate for a sitting US senator to act as an ambassador and help strengthen our alliances.

The only complaint I might have is this:

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama pledged steadfast aid to Afghanistan in talks Sunday with its Western-backed leader and vowed to pursue the war on terror “with vigor” if elected, an Afghan official said.

-From the above linked AP article

My opinion is that Presidential candidates should not be making “if elected” commitments to foreigners (hear that, John Kerry?).  The only people any US Presidential candidate should be making “if elected” promises to are the American people.  Like Senator Obama has said himself, he is travelling as a US Senator, not as a presidential candidate.

However, based on the way the AP article is written, he may have been quoted out of context.  If anyone knows where to find the full quote or a transcript of the meeting, fill us in.

From an AP report:

Obama recently chided Karzai and his government, saying it had “not gotten out of the bunker” and helped to organize the country or its political and security institutions.

Also on his itinerary later in the trip is a meeting with Nouri al-Maliki, the Iraqi leader. On the campaign trail, Obama has said one benefit of withdrawing U.S. troops is that it would pressure al-Maliki to shore up his government as well.

Nonetheless, he said he did not plan to reiterate those messages in person.

I don’t buy his “I’m going over there as a US Senator” cop-out.  He’s willing to publicly put down foreign leaders to get a crowd of liberal supporters going (and get primary votes), but refuses to personally confront those same leaders when given the chance.  He shouldn’t have said those things to begin with.

GUTLESS.

I’m not sure.

It’s been almost 3 years since he last was here, so it’s not one of his regular priorities.  He seems to have already finalized his position on the situation, so I don’t think it’s an information gathering mission.  The only reason I can think of to explain his visit is to silence his critics.  He wants to be able to say, “I’ve been there,” when they challenge his position.  In short, a publicity stunt.

He won the Democratic Party’s primary on a campaign promise of withdrawal.  I will be surprised if he visits with an open mind.  If he gets here, sees how things have improved, and changes his position, I won’t think less of him.  That’s what “change” is all about, right?

P.S.  It doesn’t bother me that the network news is paying Obama so much attention on this trip.  The man has charisma.  Senator McCain is boring.  Who would you put on YOUR news program?

The backlash at the New Yorker is typical.  The left wing’s sacred cow has been defiled and the shrieking, designed to silence and instill fear, has commenced in earnest.

“The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create,” said Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton. “But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive. And we agree.”

The countless cartoons depicting George Bush as an ape are not tasteless?  Or Bush Hitler connection?  The MSM did not rise up on its collective hind legs over this tasteless humor.  But the orthodoxy surrounding the tale of the Chicago Messiah must be protected at all costs.  So in this case a stalwart ally is savaged.   That’s OK, the New Yorker will crawl out from under the bus, and soon a cartoon depicting Obama in the correct ‘lite’ will be proffered as penance.

It appears that since the fear campaign known as Political Correctness, or PC has not managed to shut down the pajamahadeen then the boys at Google decided to do it themselves as reported in the NYT ‘BITS’ section.

Did Google use its network of online services to silence critics of Barack Obama? That was the question buzzing on a corner of the blogosphere over the last few days, after several anti-Obama bloggers were unable to update their sites, which are hosted on Google’s Blogger service.

The number of sites was seven, not several, but the gray lady has been suffering from journalistic senility the past 20 years, so I chalk it up as remarkable that the water carriers for the Democrat party reported this at all.  The claim that these sites were not targeted is laughable as this kind of thing requires human action.

Seven blogs run by Democrats who oppose Obama’s nomination for the presidency were incorrectly flagged as spam sites by Blogger, the hosting service Google has owned since 2003. Google says it was an automated response from a spam filter.

But the bloggers believe that Web surfers who support Obama took advantage of a loophole in Blogger’s system that allows readers to report spam blogs, the artificial Web sites that abound on the Internet and are used to promote other sites.

“It appears that [Blogger’s] policy can be manipulated by people determined to shut down the free exchange of ideas,” said Carissa Snedeker, whose blog, BlueLyon, was among those that were frozen.

This is classic.  The left wing, typified by the likes of  is shouting ‘censorship’ when they are called on being the windbags like Rosie O’Donnell. The interesting thing is the ongoing censoring of good news from Iraq and Afganistan.  Nothing to see, move along.

More typical of left wing censorship is on going intellectual pogrom on college campuses.  Hate speech is defined as anything that annoys or offends some left wing loon.  The banning of reading of books that have scary words is another pastime of the left wing campus thought police.

Sampson’s troubles began last year when a co-worker complained after seeing him reading a book titled “Notre Dame vs. the Klan: How the Fighting Irish Defeated the Ku Klux Klan.”

It appears that study of American history can be more radical than one would imagine.

Sampson, a 58-year-old white janitor and student majoring in communication studies, said he tried to explain that the book was a historical account.

I have an interest in American history,” Sampson said. “I was trying to educate myself

But Sampson says his union official likened the book to bringing pornography to work, and the school’s affirmative action officer in November told Sampson his conduct constituted racial harassment.

You used extremely poor judgment by insisting on openly reading the book related to a historically and racially abhorrent subject in the presence of your black co-workers,” Lillian Charleston wrote in a letter to Sampson.

I guess its OK to get hysterical over nothing when dealing with a middle age white guy, a.k.a. a redneck.   Harassment of the non-protected class is okey dokey.

If the bloggers who got targeted where Obama supporters the story would have appeared on the NYT’s front page not the BITS section.  If a member of the LBGT community where targeted for reading something, the story would be a lead on the 6 O’clock news.  Because the websites are against the DEMOCRAT presidential candidate and because this guy is some uneducated middle aged white guy (who can’t jump) the media is giving these stories short shrift.  Now, that is not censorship?

You do not have to burn down the building with the printing press or have a bonfire of books to engage in censorship.  The two acts I mentioned where brought to you by the Communists and the National Socialists. All you need to do is silence through intimidation and kangaroo courts, or have a left wing media establishment with an agenda.

Other left wing types who support censorship, like the Communist Chinese, currently still have a state run press.  Chavez, the self appointed Castro of the 21st century, also shut down the free press in his country.  I am not sure why the left feels it cannot win in an open forum.  Still, we have no real worries, its not like it really can happen here.  Ask Nancy Pelosi, she is a champion of free speech.

Massachusetts State Senator J. James Marzilli Jr. is accused of sexual harassment, according to the Boston Globe. The opposition wants him thrown out of office.

The problem is, Marzilli is under indictment only. We should not be forcing politicians out of office because of allegations. Doing so opens the door for politically-based accusations and indictments.